76: Hearing the whispers of corpses for the first time was terrifying.
Li Muchen did not linger any longer and quickened his pace to return to Black Stone Stockade. Instead of going directly back to the house of the Grandmother where he was staying, he circled to the other side of the village to find a rather talkative middle-aged Miao hunter he had met during a casual chat earlier that day.
"Brother Long, I'd like to ask you something." Li Muchen handed over a pack of good cigarettes. "That mass grave behind the village, are there any usual taboos about it? Or, are there any... special people who often frequent that area?"
The hunter took the cigarettes, pulled one out, lit it, and took a deep drag before lowering his voice. "Brother Li, why are you asking about that? That place is incredibly sinister; the elders in the village won't let the children near it. As for special people..." He hesitated, looked around, and lowered his voice even further. "There is an old legend that says sometimes in the dead of night, a 'Corpse Watcher' appears at that mass grave."
"Corpse Watcher?"
"Yeah, it's a saying passed down from the older generations." The hunter blew out smoke rings. "They say that back in the day, if a Western Hunan Corpse Driver encountered a problem with a corpse on the road, or couldn't find an employer to receive it for a while, they would temporarily store the corpse in a shaded mass grave like that. They'd set up Talismanic Incantations to prevent the corpse from transforming or being scavenged by wild animals. If it was stored for a long time, someone would need to check on it occasionally and add some materials to suppress the corpse; that's called 'Corpse Watching.' But that's all old history from before the liberation. There aren't any Corpse Drivers now, and I haven't heard of a Corpse Watcher in decades."
Li Muchen's heart stirred. Could that eerie old man he had just encountered be the legendary 'Corpse Watcher'? Or perhaps, a being related to one?
"Then recently, have there been any outsiders or strange people appearing in the nearby mountains?" Li Muchen asked from a different angle.
"Outsiders?" The hunter thought for a moment. "A while ago, it seems someone saw a few unfamiliar faces over by Wild Boar Gully. They didn't dress like locals, nor did they look like regular hikers; they were acting very suspicious. Some in the village guessed they might be poachers, or... they were looking for 'that kind of thing.'"
"That kind of thing?"
"You know... what the elders talk about, Ancient Tomb treasures hidden deep in the mountains." The hunter waved his hand. "But Wild Boar Gully is even more sinister. The terrain is complex, filled with poisonous insects and fierce beasts, and there's miasma. Even we local hunters don't dare go deep inside. Brother Li, you must never go there."
Wild Boar Gully. It was Wild Boar Gully again. Both the Grandmother and the hunter had mentioned this place, and strangers had been spotted there.
Li Muchen thanked the hunter and returned to his lodgings. In the dead of night, he sat cross-legged on the simple bamboo bed of the stilted building. He did not enter a meditative state but instead carefully extended his Spiritual Sense to its maximum range, focusing on sensing the direction of the mass grave behind the village and the general location of Wild Boar Gully further away.
In the direction of the mass grave, the Yin Qi of the earth reached its peak at midnight, and the fluctuations of those few remnants of souls were slightly active, but there were no other abnormalities.
As for the direction of Wild Boar Gully... the distance was too great for his Spiritual Sense to cover clearly. But vaguely, he seemed to sense that somewhere deep in the mountains in that direction, there was an extremely obscure yet heart-chilling aura of 'dead silence.' It wasn't natural Yin Qi; it was more like a concentrated death aura that had been imprisoned and refined. It was like a venomous snake lurking in the darkness—though dormant, it radiated a dangerous scent.
"A corpse refining ground... or a corpse storage cave?" Li Muchen opened his eyes, a cold light flashing within them.
If Release Void truly collaborated with the evil people of Western Hunan, a remote and dangerous place like Wild Boar Gully, which likely possessed 'special resources' (ancient corpses?), would undoubtedly be an excellent place for hiding or trading.
He couldn't wait any longer.
The next morning, Li Muchen bid farewell to the Grandmother, leaving some money and medicine as a token of gratitude, and left Black Stone Stockade. He didn't ask the villagers for the specific path to Wild Boar Gully to avoid alerting the enemy. Instead, based on his vague sensing from the night before and the direction mentioned by the hunter, he relied on his Spiritual Sense's keen discernment of earth energy and vitality to head into the deep mountains alone.
The mountain path became increasingly rugged and difficult to traverse. Ancient trees blotted out the sky, vines blocked the way, and poisonous insects occasionally darted out from the fallen leaves. But for Li Muchen, these natural obstacles did not pose much of a threat. His movements were light as his True Qi flowed beneath his feet, allowing him to step on branches and leaves while avoiding toxic miasma. His speed was much faster than that of an ordinary mountain dweller.
The deeper he went, the fewer signs of human life there were, and that faint aura of 'dead silence' in the air became more pronounced. At the same time, he began to find some man-made traces in inconspicuous corners—broken fresh branches, blurred unfamiliar footprints on the muddy ground, and even a small piece of cloth stained with dark red smudges that didn't belong to local plants, found in a rock crevice by a stream.
Someone was ahead, and they might have just passed through recently.
Li Muchen became even more cautious, concealing his aura and limiting the range of his Spiritual Sense to a few yards around his body. He only used it for passive sensing to avoid alerting any potentially vigilant individuals with an active probe.
After traveling for about another two hours, the sun had passed its zenith. He moved through a dense forest of hemlock trees, and the view ahead suddenly opened up to reveal a deep, gourd-shaped valley. The entrance was narrow, with steep cliffs on both sides covered in slippery moss and epiphytic plants.
The valley was filled with mist, making it look gloomy even under the noon sun, and visibility was hindered. The faint sound of a gurgling stream could be heard, but more distinct was that intense, extremely uncomfortable aura of 'dead silence' emanating from deep within the valley.
This should be Wild Boar Gully.
Li Muchen did not rush in but instead went into hiding in a concealed hollow in the cliff wall near the valley entrance, observing patiently.
The ground near the valley entrance had significantly more cluttered footprints, and there were even wheel ruts—not the tire marks of modern vehicles, but more like the tracks of simple wooden wheelbarrows or carts. This meant that people frequently entered and exited this place, and might even be transporting things here.
He remained hidden for an entire afternoon until the sun began to set in the west, and the mist in the valley was dyed a dusky yellow, like old burial shrouds.
Finally, there was movement within the valley.
A low, strange sound, like metal scraping or a blunt object being dragged across the ground, drifted from deep within the mist. Soon after, several blurry figures slowly emerged from the thick fog, walking toward the valley entrance.
Li Muchen held his breath and focused his gaze.
Walking in front were three 'people' dressed in rags, their bodies stiff and movements sluggish. Their heads were bowed, their steps were in unison, and their arms hung stiffly at their sides. Their walking posture was extremely unnatural, as if their joints were rusted. Even more bizarrely, a yellow paper talisman with red writing was stuck to each of their foreheads, fluttering slightly in the twilight.
Behind them followed a thin, short figure wearing dirty cloth clothes of an indistinguishable color. His head was wrapped in thick cloth, and in one hand he held a dim yellow lantern with Talismanic Incantations painted on the shade. In his other hand, he shook a copper bell, which emitted a rhythmic, crisp yet sinister ringing sound.
"Ding-ling... Ding-ling..."
The bell's sound echoed in the silent valley, and the three stiff figures moved forward step by step, mechanically following the rhythm of the bell.
Corpse driving!
Li Muchen's pupils contracted slightly. Although he had expected it, seeing this legendary, eerie scene with his own eyes still gave him a shock. He could clearly feel that the three 'people' walking in front had no life in them; there was only an intense corpse aura and a resentment that was being forcibly imprisoned and driven. They were indeed corpses, being moved by some sort of evil art.
The person behind shaking the bell and holding the lantern emitted an evil Yin aura similar to the old man at the mass grave yesterday, but it was even more intense and mixed. Clearly, this was a Corpse Driver.
The Corpse Driver led the three Walking Corpses to a relatively flat clearing at the valley entrance, and the rhythm of the bell changed. The three Walking Corpses stopped simultaneously, then turned stiffly to face the valley and stood straight in place, motionless.
The Corpse Driver set down the lantern and copper bell, walked to the side, and picked up a few stones from the ground, seemingly setting up a simple illusion or protective circle. After finishing this, he looked up at the sky, listened toward the depths of the valley, muttered a few obscure and difficult-to-understand dialect phrases, and then turned, nimbly disappearing back into the mist he came from. It seemed he was only temporarily 'parking' these three Walking Corpses here.
The clearing fell silent for a moment, leaving only the three Walking Corpses with talismans on their foreheads standing like wooden stakes, looking incredibly eerie in the darkening sky.
Li Muchen stared sharply at the three Walking Corpses, especially the talismans on their foreheads. The style of the runes was quite different from the Daoist corpse-suppressing or corpse-driving talismans he knew; they were more ancient and ferocious, carrying a sense of brutal imprisonment and command.
This Corpse Driver's methods of refining and driving corpses were by no means from an orthodox Legacy. It was more like... some sort of 'dark method' that had taken an evil path, perhaps possessing greater power but also coming at a higher price.
And deep within Wild Boar Gully, there were likely more secrets hidden, as well as... the person he was looking for.
Night completely enveloped this bizarre valley.